NFL teams that never kicked off

In the 1986 NFC Championship game, the Giants won the coin toss and chose to play the first quarter with the 15-30 mph winds at their backs instead of receiving the opening kickoff. The Redskins failed to make a first down on their first two drives, neither punt made it past midfield, and the Giants quickly had a 10-0 lead.

Even though the Giants kicked off to start the game, this did not mean that they would receive in the second half. The Redskins were given the same options the Giants were given for the first half, and they chose to receive over avoiding the wind. The Giants kicked off for both halves, and the Redskins went on to be shut out 17-0, never having kicked off in the game.

At least 8 other teams have gone an entire NFL game without having kicked off, which oddly has the Jets going two consecutive games without a kickoff against the Saints, an infrequent opponent at that.

The only way a team can be on this list and not be shut out is to score a safety, to score at the end of the first or second half or, in a nearly impossible scenario, to score the game-winning points in overtime. Highlighted below, the Bengals are the only known team to never kick off in a non-shutout when the Patriots took an intentional safety in the fourth quarter.

A potentially controversial sequence of events occurred late in the second half of the Packers-Falcons game when it appeared that two different players possibly threw punches that could’ve have warranted ejections.